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By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion Unplugged

“Telling folks that Jesus is the answer can rub them wrong,” as Brad Paisley put it in a 2010 song.

“But this is country music,” Paisley proclaimed, “and we do.”

Sure, drinking and cheating songs characterize a whole lot of the genre, known for its roots in working-class, blue-collar American life.

But faith, too, infuses many Nashville hits, as illustrated by the 60th annual Academy of Country Music Awards — broadcast live May 8 from Frisco, Texas, and now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Cody Johnson won the ACM’s Song of the Year honor for “Dirt Cheap,” about an old cotton farmer refusing to sell his land to developers offering “top dollar.”

The song reflects on “that little girl that used to swing right there” and the spot “under that white oak tree beneath the cross … where my best (dog) buddy’s buried” and the place “where that woman … said ‘yes’ when I got down on one knee.”

“No, it ain’t something you fall into,” the old man says of his property. “It’s something God gives you. And you hold onto.”

“Dirt Cheap” songwriter Josh Phillips gave credit for the award to his “Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

“Without him, this don’t happen,” Phillips told the cheering ACM crowd.

Over the past six decades, the ACM has recognized a number of faith-friendly hits with its Song of the Year and/or Single of the Year honors.

My Top 10 favorites (with a few representative lyrics):

Read the full column.

This column appears in the online magazine Religion Unplugged.

Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash